Mistle Thrush holly berry stripping initiated by Xmas wreath?!

I'm currently sat in my garden office spellbound by the sight of dozens of beautiful Mistle Thrushes swooping in and out of my holly tree to hastily clear the berries. I particularly love how one or two always keep watch on the nearby apple tree whilst the others fill their boots!

My question / random musing is this: Late yesterday afternoon, I pruned the tree of a few laden branches to add to the Xmas wreath that my daughter was constructing to liven up our front door. Do you think one of these vigilant Thrushes witnessed my stealing of their berries and this kick-started the mass hoarding today?! The tree was full to the brim with berries yesterday afternoon -- it is now bare and it's not even midday!

Welcome to the community, Phil. What a lovely experience for you! You may find they will be back for the berries in your wreath. We spent many Christmases in a rural farmhouse and one year we found that the wreath on the door had been vandalised by something, leaving greenery at odd angles and with some bits having been almost completely pulled out. Watching the resident Blackbirds we concluded that they were the culprits, flying up from the ground to pick the holly berries from the wreath.

Hello Phil, welcome from me up in the very far north of Scotland, in Caithness. That must have been some sight, I think they saw you cutting the branches and thought that you were not having all their berries, they were!!

I haven't seen a redwing yet, but I think there were a fieldfare or two in the scrum -- I do often see singular redwings, as well as fieldfares & thrushes around this time of year, but I've never seen such a large group of thrushes in the garden as today -- I thought they were young starlings initially as the scene was so frantic!

Sadly I haven't taken any photos -- To be honest, I was too transfixed by the event to think about a camera!